Cape Town – President Jacob Zuma declined to explain fully
why he found parts on the protection of state information bill problematic,
when pressed by the media, which prompted hours of speculation as to the exact
provisions in question and the extent of possible amendments.

Confusion grew when his spokesperson Mac Maharaj
indicated that Zuma may have meant to refer to different sections of the bill
but he later retracted this.

Earlier on Thursday Zuma said he could not sign the bill
into law, because it was incoherently drafted and, therefore, unconstitutional.

Since the bill was adopted in April, Zuma has been
lobbied not to sign it into law, but to refer it to the Constitutional Court
for certification.

Asked why he did not take this route, the president
responded that the Constitutional Court was not in a position to amend the
bill, and that only lawmakers were.

"I sent it to the people who will fix what I think
is wrong," he said.

Zuma’s announcement was widely welcomed by critics who
have campaigned against the legislation for years.

The bill was deemed a throwback to apartheid-era state
secrecy when it was first introduced, and over almost three years of drafting
the ANC was forced to retreat from some of its most controversial clauses.

Revising the bill

During his announcement, the president singled out two
sections of the bill as problematic but his office indicated that a letter sent
to Speaker Max Sisulu mandates lawmakers to revise the contentious official
secrets bill as a whole.

"I have referred the bill back to the National
Assembly for reconsideration, in so far as sections 42 and 45 lack meaning and
coherence, and consequently are irrational and accordingly are
unconstitutional," Zuma said to parliamentary reporters.

Section 45 criminalises the improper classification of
state information and provides for prison sentences of five to 15 years,
depending on the level of wrongful classification. It notably makes it a crime
to classify information to conceal corruption or influence a tender process.

Ironically, advocacy groups have welcomed this section
for offering those who reveal classified information to expose state wrongdoing
protection from prosecution.

Section 42 purports to deal with failure to report
possession of a classified document but refers back to an earlier section that
sets out the maximum classification period, as stipulated in the National
Archives Act.

Shortly after Zuma announced his decision, Sisulu
informed the National Assembly that an ad hoc committee would be established to
deal with the president's reservations about the bill.

Rising to address the Assembly, State Security Minister
Siyabonga Cwele welcomed the president's decision, because it would strengthen
the legislation.

Bill remains ‘unconstitutional’

Critics - among them ANC alliance partners and veteran
human rights lawyer George Bizos - have insisted that it remained
unconstitutional.

Their objections revolve around more provisions than
those Zuma singled out, including the fact that the bill places a low burden of
proof on the state for crimes such as espionage.

Last month, the Nelson Mandela Centre for Memory called
for the bill to be withdrawn and rewritten from scratch because, it said, it
would create a regime of dealing with state information that ran parallel to
that envisaged in the Constitution and the progressive Promotion of Access to
Information Act (Paia).

"This was the basis for the secrecy and lack of
accountability which characterised the apartheid system," it said.

The Right2Know campaign welcomed Zuma's decision and said
he had mentioned "only two of many draconian aspects of the bill" and
urged a comprehensive redraft.

"We call on members of Parliament to seize this
opportunity to redeem themselves and redraft the bill to bring it in line with
the values of openness and transparency," the group's national
co-ordinator Mark Weinberg said.

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